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AT&T's Turner Plans To Ramp Up Addressable Advertising In 2019

AT&T
will ramp up addressable advertising on its Turner networks next year.

“We’ll be able to monetize that inventory without automation in the year 2019,” says Randall
Stephenson, chairman-CEO, AT&T, speaking at a UBS media investment conference on Tuesday. “Hopefully, you'll start to see those results in 2019.”

Stephenson is buoyed by the
prospects for Turner when looking at results from its DirecTV satellite pay TV service. Its addressable ad revenue is soaring, up 22% in the third quarter of this year. This come from the two minutes
per hours that TV networks typically give to pay TV providers.

These are great results, he says -- especially when DirecTV's traditional subscriber base from its satellite service is shrinking
3% to 4% per year.

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“That’s an amazing phenomenon. That has given us a lot of conviction in looking at Turner’s [14 minutes of advertising per hour] massive inventory of
advertising. Can you get targeted in the Turner inventory like you are in the Direct TV inventory?”

He believes Turner, which pulls in some $4 billion a year in advertising, can.

Stephenson says automation will be key, but will not come immediately. “It’s going to take a while to get the technology built.”

DirecTV, which pulls in $1.5 billion to $2
billion a year in advertising revenue, has been been to do this without much automation and investment.